CHECA TAKES HIS FIRST AND HONDA'S 100TH WSB RACE WINS2008-06-01 21:23Carlos Checa (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR) scored his first ever World Superbike Championship race win at the all-new WSB venue of Miller Motorsports Park in America, and then followed it up with an even more impressive second victory in race two, taking Honda to 100 wins in this category of racing. Checa had won his first career Superpole on Saturday, with a new track best of 1’48.193, but after an indifferent start to the first race he took the lead on lap four and was never headed from then on. The supposed 21-lap race actually ran to 20 laps, after the start was delayed for a few minutes, but Checa kept his nerve after two of his main rivals, Troy Bayliss and Noriyuki Haga, crashed out of contention in separate incidents. Checa himself had crashed in qualifying, but overcame his bumps and bruises to reassert his championship threat once more. In the second race Checa hit the front on lap nine, and eased away to record a margin of victory of 3.5 seconds, easing up at the finish to take a maximum 50 points for his day’s work. Checa is now the clear challenger to long time leader Bayliss, who scored no points today, after one crash and one technical retirement. Bayliss has an unchanged 194 points to Checa’s 166, a difference of 28 points, with more than half a season left to run. Checa’s race one success was Honda’s first race win with the 2008 model CBR1000RR Fireblade, and both Karl Muggeridge (DFX Corse Honda CBR1000RR) in seventh and Ryuichi Kiyonari (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda CBR1000RR) in tenth joined Checa in the upper regions of the results pages in the opener. In race two Kiyonari was seventh, and he now sits tenth in the championship, on 80 points. Kenan Sofuoglu (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda Jnr CBR1000RR) qualified a disappointed 25th in his comeback ride, but went 12th in race one, 14th in race two. Roberto Rolfo (Hannspree Althea Honda CBR1000RR) rode injured at Miller, and finished race one 20th, race two 16th and remains on 20 points. He thought he would be more than fit to ride before practice, but he qualified only 28th overall after suffering great pain from his injured shoulder and arm. Gregorio Lavilla (Vent Axia VK Honda CBR1000RR) recovered from a tough qualifying weekend, in which he was only 23rd, to record 13th in race one and then score another point for 15th in race two. He is now 12th, on 63 points. Russell Holland (DFX Corse Honda CBR1000RR) scored a point in race one after just missing out on Superpole by only one place. In race two he was forced to retire in the pits. Muggeridge went 11th in race two and is now 15th overall. Luca Morelli was released from his contract with the Alto Evolution Honda team shortly before the start of the WSB race weekend in America and experienced American rider Jason Pridmore is his replacement. Alto Evolution Honda CBR1000RR rider Shuhei Aoyama was as high as tenth in race one, but retired on lap 15, and was also forced out of race two. Pridmore had two eventful races, in 21st and 18th places at the end. Checa said: “It’s been fantastic to take a double win here in the USA. Just at the start of the first race I had some problems with my number one bike and had to use the second one. I felt I had a good start, but then saw the other riders in front of me I knew I had to work hard. When I saw Neukirchner in front I knew I could overtake him and take the lead. In the beginning it was difficult to make a gap, but then I made enough ground. It then was more difficult to control my mind than control the tyre. At the end of the race Corser was catching up and I had to concentrate and improve my pace. The last time I won a race was ten years ago and these are my first wins outside Spain. I would like to dedicate them to my friend Wayne Rainey.” Kiyonari said: “I had a good start in race one, but my first laps were too slow and I dropped back in the field. I did chase the front-runners and managed to gain some ground but it wasn’t enough for a good result. For the second race we changed the front tyre and we tried a different setting. Again I had a good start and I worked hard to make my way forward, but in the last laps I lost the grip from my front tyre and I couldn’t push any further.” Sofuoglu said: “It has been a hard weekend for me. I made a good start in race one, and made a big step forward from my 25th position on the grid to 9th spot in less than six laps. But then I lost my strength and concentration and I dropped back. I gained few points in the two races today but have learned a lot. I hope things will work better in the next race.” Rolfo said: “Race two was really better than the first one. I want to thank the Clinica Mobile doctors because I had a very effective treatment from them and I felt less pain. I did not start as well as in race one, but I found a good rhythm also because I rode the bike using my legs more than my arms. My Honda was really fast today and the team has worked extremely hard. I’d like to thank them for their help this weekend.” Aoyama said: “We are happier now with everything. This weekend we got a lot of improvements in the machine and we got a good amount of track time. We were in Superpole and did OK before the race. Today we had some problems with the technical package but this is racing. We have made big steps.” Pridmore said: “I got run off by another rider on turn one, then I ran of at turn five and that put me back more in race one. It was a big effort to catch back up. We only finished six seconds from 15th and that wasn’t bad considering I was off the track twice.” The next race, at which the World Supersport Championship returns to the SBK calendar, is at the Nürburgring, Germany, on Sunday June 15. Results SUPERBIKE Race 1 : (Laps 20 = 98,140 Km) Pos / Rider / Nat. / Team / Gap 1 / C. CHECA / ESP / Honda CBR1000RR / Hannspree Ten Kate Honda / 37'04.991 2 / T. CORSER / AUS / Yamaha YZF-R1 / Yamaha Motor Italia WSB / 2.809 3 / M.FABRIZIO / ITA / Ducati 1098 F08 / Ducati Xerox Team / 6.546 4 / M.NEUKIRCHNER / GER / Suzuki GSX-R1000 / Team Alstare Suzuki / 7.764 5 / F. NIETO / ESP / Suzuki GSX-R1000 / Team Suzuki Alstare / 16.475 6 / J. SMRZ / CZE / Ducati 1098 RS 08 / Guandalini Racing by Grifo's / 17.126 7 / K. MUGGERIDGE / AUS / Honda CBR1000RR / D.F. Racing / 17.284 8 / Y. KAGAYAMA / JPN / Suzuki GSX-R1000 / Team Suzuki Alstare / 17.416 9 / M.BIAGGI / ITA / Ducati 1098 RS 08 / Sterilgarda Go Eleven / 18.117 10 / R. KIYONARI / JPN / Honda CBR1000RR / Hannspree Ten Kate Honda / 20.467 11 / L. LANZI / ITA / Ducati 1098 RS 08 / R.G. Team / 21.742 12 / K. SOFUOGLU / TUR / Jr. Honda CBR1000RR / Hannspree Ten Kate Honda / 27.533 13 / G.LAVILLA / ESP / Honda CBR1000RR / Ventaxia VK Honda / 32.609 14 / R. XAUS / ESP / Ducati 1098 RS 08 / Sterilgarda Go Eleven / 33.165 15 / R. HOLLAND / AUS / Honda CBR1000RR / D.F. Racing - Bertocchi / 34.182 Fastest Lap 4° Carlos Checa 1'50.091 160,460 Km/h Race 2: (Laps 18 = 104,274 Km) Pos / Rider / Nat. / Team / Gap 1 / C. CHECA / ESP / Honda CBR1000RR / Hannspree Ten Kate Honda / 38'44.105 2 / M.NEUKIRCHNER / GER / Suzuki GSX-R1000 / Team Alstare Suzuki / 3.547 3 / M.FABRIZIO / ITA / Ducati 1098 F08 / Ducati Xerox Team / 6.613 4 / M.BIAGGI / ITA / Ducati 1098 RS 08 / Sterilgarda Go Eleven / 7.878 5 / Y. KAGAYAMA / JPN / Suzuki GSX-R1000 / Team Suzuki Alstare / 10.568 6 / N.HAGA / JPN / Yamaha YZF-R1 / Yamaha Motor Italia WSB / 11.539 7 / R. KIYONARI / JPN / Honda CBR1000RR / Hannspree Ten Kate Honda / 18.381 8 / F. NIETO / ESP / Suzuki GSX-R1000 / Team Suzuki Alstare / 20.646 9 / R. LACONI / FRA / Kawasaki ZX-10R / Kawasaki PSG-1 Corse / 21.264 10 / L. LANZI / ITA / Ducati 1098 RS 08 / R.G. Team / 24.863 11 / K. MUGGERIDGE / AUS / Honda CBR1000RR / D.F. Racing / 25.672 12 / A. BADOVINI / ITA / Kawasaki ZX-10R / Team Pedercini / 31.711 13 / M.TAMADA / JPN / Kawasaki ZX-10R / Kawasaki PSG-1 Corse / 35.628 14 / K. SOFUOGLU / TUR / Jr. Honda CBR1000RR / Hannspree Ten Kate Honda / 42.816 15 / G.LAVILLA / ESP / Honda CBR1000RR / Ventaxia VK Honda / 45.034 Fastest Lap 11° Carlos Checa 1'49.703 161,028 Km/h Lap record (New record) : 2008 Carlos Checa 1'50.091 160,460 Km/h Best Lap: 2008 Carlos Checa 1'48.193 163,270 Km/h Riders Championship Standings: 1 BAYLISS 194, 2 CHECA 166, 3 NEUKIRCHNER 144, 4 NIETO 126, 5 HAGA 122, 6 CORSER 121, 7 XAUS 92, 8 FABRIZIO 87, 9 BIAGGI 85, 10 KIYONARI 80, 11 KAGAYAMA 73, 12 LAVILLA 63, 13 LANZI 60, 14 SMRZ 51, 15 MUGGERIDGE 49. Source: Honda Pro Image Click here to visit our forums to discuss this story |
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